Market overview: Stocks sell off as S&P 500 tests technical support

1630:Close Stocks registered sharp falls after the IMF warned the US Federal Reserve to hold off on raising interest rates until the first half of 2016. That came as today’s Eurogroup ended with no agreement between Greece and its creditors, without the Mediterranean country having presented any new proposals and talk of Grexit ramping up. Gilts jumped, alongside gains in US Treasury notes and European sovereign bonds, including those from the periphery. Selling in US-listed Chinese companies’ shares was also noted. The S&P 500 fell back towards its 200-day moving average. FTSE 100 down 103.47 points to 6,432.21.

1614: The yield on 10-year Gilts is down by a whopping 19 basis points to 1.82%. The MPC is very likely to sit up and take notice. German, Spanish and US sovereign bonds were registering smaller, but nonetheless significant, gains.

1559: The FTSE 100 has dropped below the 6,500 level for the first time since mid-January after yet more disappointing newsflow on Greece, with mining stocks extending losses on the back of a reduction in risk appetite and sell-off in metal prices. The FTSE 100 is down 76 points (-1.17%) at 6,459, trading at intraday levels not seen since 16 January.

1505: Today's meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers has finished with no agreement and Eurozone officials reportedly saying Greece had tabled no new proposal.

1500: The UK economy continued to gently accelerate in the second quarter, eating further into existing spare capacity and thus keeping expectations for interest hikes on track, a leading think-tank said. Britain’s gross domestic product expanded at a 0.7% quarter-on-quarter clip over the three months to June, according to the latest estimate from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.

1325: Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives research at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch sees West Texas and Brent oil futures heading lower to $50 and mid-$50 a barrel on the combined pressures from a possible nuclear deal with Iran, rising US interest rates and worries over Greece. China is not the main story however, he told Bloomberg News. The need of oil majors to hedge their oil prices for 2016 is also a factor - about 1bn barrels need to be hedged in North America alone. This time around the pressure to hedge is even greater given that many oil majors are going into next year very leveraged.

1323: US State Department says negotiations with Iran have been extended until 10 July.

1300: Iron ore futures drop below $50 a tonne.

1050: The Athens stock market will remain closed until Thursday, according to a statement from the Hellenic Capital Market Commission. Trading on the ASE Composite was stopped last Monday after Greece failed to come to an agreement with its international creditors.

1005: The equity bounce unfolding this morning is likely to be short lived, says Brenda Kelly of London Capital Group. "With several of the euro group set to meet today, markets are clearly expecting a positive outcome on the Greek debacle Capital controls have been in effect for a week now and it will be difficult for the ECB to maintain current levels of ELA should the Greeks miss the payment due to the ECB on 20/7. The risk of Greece defaulting on this is high and will likely lead to ELA cut off which in turn will reduce the likelihood of Greece staying in the Eurozone. We are in the eye of the storm and in some respects the moves seen this morning are little more than short covering."
As a side note, she adds that speculation of BP being a takeover target is "likely overdone". Given the oil giant's huge market cap, the fact that it has outperformed its peers in the first half of the year and its exposure to Russia makes it "an unlikely target" when compared to other oil stocks. "There will be consolidation in the sector but the focus will be elsewhere," she suggests.

0945: UK industrial production increased 2.1% in May compared with the same month the year before, helped by growth in mining and quarrying. This followed a 1.2% rise in April and beat the 1.6% forecast.

0936: Marks & Spencer has dropped into the red despite an earlier rise. First-quarter sales were better than City analysts had feared, with clothing like-for-like sales down just 0.4% compared with the -1% forecast. Chipmaker ARM Holdings rose 2.5% after Morgan Stanley added the stock to its “Best Ideas” list in Europe and upgraded the stock to an ‘overweight’ rating. “Past the iPhone 6 upgrade cycle, we like the long duration of the revenue and earnings growth, in a context of slow global growth,” it said.

0855: The FTSE 100 is down 0.17% at 6,524.60 with oil and gas stocks out of favour following the recent plunge in crude prices. Investors were also treading carefully ahead of a scheduled meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers at 13:00 CET to prepare for a Eurozone leaders summit at 18:00 CET. “In a repeat of so many days over the past five months, a EU summit this evening preceded by a Eurogroup get together this afternoon is set to dominant the market discourse and bore investors to tears,” said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.